Spot gold was up 0.3 percent at $1,648.84 an ounce at 5:20 a.m. EDT (0920 GMT), while gold futures for June delivery were up $7.60 an ounce at $1,649.90.

In a statement after a two-day meeting to Wednesday, the Fed's policy-setting panel reiterated its expectation that interest rates would not rise until at least late 2014, and took no action on monetary policy.

Gold bulls, who had been hoping for fresh hints of quantitative easing from the Fed, were disappointed, and prices fell below $1,625 straight after the statement. Dollar weakness and price-sensitive buying quickly reversed that, however.

"The message out of the Fed didn't really change much," Credit Suisse analyst Tom Kendall said. "We had a little sell off immediately after the statement came out, but it quickly recovered.